Gratitude 2016: A Phoenix Year

Thank you for showing me that I am willing to burn. I now know that I have the discipline to sit in a fire of discomfort until the flames become translucent and clarity comes. I am strong enough to surpass the urge to return to old patterns of comfort for the sake of familiarity and I am brave enough to let go.

Thank you for showing me I have the tenacity to overturn every stone within a relationship in order to see how I am responsible for my actions. The winding journey in which aspects of myself were fragmented along the way in order to accommodate another has worked its way back home to myself again. I feel so much lighter.

Thank you for revealing my light and shadow aspects and for expanding my capacity to hold them both with perspective and love.

Thank you for the reminder that challenge can be a chapter in my life, it doesn’t need to be the whole story.

Thank you for surrounding me with a tribe, family and community that loves me so deeply and supports me through times of tribulation. I have a team of light workers that uphold me in my Highest, even when I cannot see it myself. They remind me to ask for help. They remind me I am not alone. They have my back when I fall, and are there to celebrate my highs. They encourage me to fly.

Thank you for my health. I have experienced first handedly that cells do change and the body has an innate capacity to heal and regenerate. With the help of a brilliant holistic practitioner who believed in me, my body is in an oxygenized, vibrant state. I can feel my inner radiance and see my outer glow.

Thank you for my precious body that is responsive, communicative, strong, flexible and open. It is my greatest source of grounding in this world and a conduit for joy and pleasure.

Thank you for reviving my playful, adventurous, freedom seeker. She has always been there, mischievously smiling and daring.

Thank you for the experience of being in love. Connecting me with a man that I laugh with every day, who is so generous in all ways and steady in his support; he has done wonders for amplifying my joie de vivre. I feel so grateful for our life adventures…the deep journeys and the play.

Thank you for the dance. Oh the dance. The late nights, early mornings, impromptu mid-day, deep bass and beats. Heart thumping, feet stomping, booty shaking wildness.

Thank you for the dust. Burning Man dust that etched into the lines of my skin and enlivened my human spirit. The playa ignited my creativity, spontaneity, curiosity and delight. I played not only outside the box, I realized there is no box.

Thank you for the Temple that brought me to my knees again and again and again. I’ve bathed myself in salt-water tears through practices of forgiveness…of my self and others. My eyes and soul feasted on this impermanent masterpiece that was both heart-wrenching and heart-expanding. To experience the life-force of dreams and grievances within the temple walls, and then watch it burn to dust…I have no words for the sacredness of this experience.

Thank you for a livelihood that teaches my simplicity. To be of service on a path that deepens my well with every interaction. That shows me the only way to love is through presence, and that when I am present, I feel…no, I AM the Source of Love itself.

What a ride, 2016. It was a Phoenix year of allowing things to burn down and then to be reborn. Every moment was perfection.